Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Dionisio Santiago thinks so, saying it was "high time" to commute the double life sentence of 15 Air Force soldiers convicted of the 1983 slays.
"It is not good for this to be overly politicized," Santiago said. "To think their guilt was not proven."
Santiago said he would recommend the commutation of the soldiers’ sentence this year because it is required by law.
He said Malacañang returned without approval a list of nearly 200 convicts, including the "Aquino-Galman boys," whose sentences the BuCor had recommended for commutation.
An admission by former M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez of the defunct Aviation Security Command (Avsecom) that he brought Rolando Galman to the Manila International Airport (MIA) to kill former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. did not result in the reopening of the double murder case.
Martinez made the admission in 1995, nine years after he and 14 other soldiers were convicted, citing what he described as "cover-up information" regarding the Aug. 21, 1983 assassination.
Martinez’s revelation that then Aviation Security Command deputy commander Col. Romeo Ochoco and Capt. Felipe Valerio could be possible links to the mastermind of the assassination did not spur government action on the case, either.
The soldiers remain in jail, serving out two life sentences each for the double murder.
"The problem is not the soldiers telling everything they know," NBP chaplain Rev. Bobby Olaguer.
Also incarcerated at the NBP for the Aquino-Galman double murder are former Capt. Romeo Bautista, former 2nd Lt. Jesus Castro, former Sergeants Claro Lat, Arnulfo de Mesa, Rogelio Moreno, Mario Lazaga, Filomeno Miranda, Rolando de Guzman, Ernesto Mateo, Rodolfo Desolong, Cordova Estelo, Arnulfo Artates, Ruben Aquino and Felizardo Taran.
Martinez, now 66, wrote a four-page, handwritten letter to then President Fidel Ramos dated Jan. 19, 1994, detailing the events that preceded the Aquino assassination.
Martinez said in his letter that:
• Ochoco told him the "ex-senator will be assassinated upon arrival from self-exile in the United States."
• Galman was assigned to be the triggerman and he (Martinez) was tasked to accompany Galman to the MIA.
• He was to kill Galman if the latter failed to carry out his mission.
• It was Ochoco who handed Galman the maintenance crew uniform he was wearing at the time of the assassination.
The soldiers believe that Ochoco is the key to unlocking the two-decade old mystery of who masterminded the Aquino assassination.
Ochoco and Valerio, however, were never indicted for the murders and have reportedly fled the country and assumed new identities.
"It was really Galman. What else could we change there? I was part of that. I brought him in. He was really with me. If he didn’t pull the trigger, I was to kill him," Martinez said in Filipino, repeating a story that was worn with retelling.
Soon after the killings, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos created the multisectoral Agrava fact-finding board which submitted two separate reports in 1984.
In the report of board chairman Justice Corazon Agrava, she cleared then Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Fabian Ver of any involvement of the crime.
But while Agrava cleared Ver, the four other members of the commission — Amado Dizon, Ernesto Herrera, Luciano Salazar and Dante Santos — all believed Ver was involved in the Aquino-Galman slay.
In 1985, a Sandiganbayan decision acquitted Ver and the soldiers but the Sandiganbayan retried the case in 1998 and found the soldiers, including Avsecom chief Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, guilty of the double murder charges against them.
Custodio would have been the highest-ranking official to be convicted but he died before he could serve his two life sentences.
The justices would have meted the death penalty, but, at the time the court decision was passed, the 1987 Constitution prohibited the imposition of capital punishment.
Even after the 15 soldiers and their command chief were convicted of the double murder, the court failed to identify the masterminds behind the Aquino assassination.
Each year they face reporters expecting to bag the big story, to get the "tell-all" answers that were never uttered before.
While they have never tired of recounting their memories of Aug. 21, 1983, which were still vivid after two decades, their frustration was unmistakable.
Deep sighs and stares into some far-off vision only they could see, the sloped curve of what must have been ramrod-straight shoulders were all non-verbal statements of defeat.
"We’re tired. People talk to us only when August comes. We don’t want (to give) interviews anymore, but we decided to talk to media because this is our last card," de Mesa, 43, told The STAR.
"This might be out last August where we can reiterate all we know, which, hopefully, would lead to a re-investigation," de Mesa added.
De Mesa has a good reason to feel this is their last shot at freedom, since the prescription period for the Aquino-Galman double murder case lapses on Thursday this week.
Aquino and Galman will have been dead exactly 20 years and, under the law, it would take newly-discovered evidence and the participation of at least one of the accused to reopen the case once the prescription period lapses.
The soldiers’ telling of the events preceding, during and immediately after the Aquino assassination has remained remarkably consistent over the years.
While a reinvestigation of the case is always possible, even with an expired prescription period, former Aquino-galman prosecution lawyer Mario Ongkiko warned in February that evidence becomes less credible in court with the passage of time.
This opinion was also expressed by former Tanodbayan, now House Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzalez in an interview last month.
Unknown to many, Gonzalez has quietly been pursuing the leads given to him by the imprisoned soldiers, with whom he met in February after reading about their appeal for a commutation of sentence published in The STAR.
Gonzalez said he was pursuing the case because "by Aug. 21, the prescriptive period (for the criminal case) comes in," reducing the soldiers’ chances of success in their quest to have the case reopened.
"Some of the things they mentioned during our meeting, I was already pursuing at that time, but then I was removed (as Tanodbayan). My efforts then were wasted because we could have opened a can of worms. We’re close, getting closer (to the mastermind)," Gonzalez said.
De Mesa noted that people seem to refuse to understand that it was impossible for the soldiers to identify the masterminds themselves.
"They do not know how the military is run. We’re just low-level. It ends there. Our only connection was Gen. Custodio. He’s already dead. We may find out from Ochoco," de Mesa said in Filipino.
Bautista said that, unknown to the soldiers, there was a parallel plan for "Oplan: Balikbayan," the Aquino assassination plot.
"It turned out that the parallel plan was MSgt. Martinez," Bautista said. "While we were carrying out our duties, he was expected to execute another plan."
Martinez also said that, to the best of his knowledge, the businessman was also closely associated with Ochoco, Brig. Gen. Romeo Gatan of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and millionaire Hermilo Gosuico, Martinez’s co-accused in the case. Gosuico was among those the Sandiganbayan acquitted of the double murder charges in 1990.
Ochoco was also closely associated with Ver, he said.
Martinez said he met Gatan and Gosuico at a hotel in Parañaque two days before the assassination.
"I am not saying that (the businessman) is the mastermind. But Galman did tell me he worked for that businessman," Martinez said.
Martinez stressed that, had Ramos pursued his revelation in 1994, there was the possibility that the masterminds had already been uncovered.
As to why the masterminds wanted Aquino dead, the soldiers can only conjecture, just like the rest of the populace.
Martinez said he was brought to the Carlton Hotel along Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Parañaque, where Ochoco introduced him to Gatan, Gosuico, Galman and five bodyguards whose names he can no longer recall.
Martinez remembered Galman as a stocky man who stood about 5’8" tall. "He was talkative. He told me a lot of stories. He said he was ‘being used.’ He didn’t directly say he was a hit man."
The following day, the colonel gave new instructions, Martinez said. "Aquino was to be assassinated upon arrival from self-exile in the United States. Galman (was to) be the triggerman and my task was to accompany Galman from the hotel to MIA. I did not resist because the armed bodyguards were ready to kill if I backed out."
He said he was handed a loaded Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver, while Galman was given a fully loaded Smith & Wesson caliber .357 Magnum revolver and extra bullets.
Martinez said he and Galman test-fired the guns, adding that Galman told him it was easy to shoot a person. The plan was for Galman to shoot Aquino at close range.
He quoted Galman’s advice for how the hit was to go down: "We’ll have to aim well, because he has a bullet-proof vest."
Once Aquino’s bloodied body was brought to a van after the assassination, Martinez recalled that he indeed feel the bullet-proof vest covering the dead senator’s upper torso.
Martinez said he was sleepless on the eve of the assassination. They were not allowed to use the telephone, he said, and he was not able to call up his family.
Early on the morning of Aug. 21, Gatan Ochoco and Gosuico arrived at the Carlton Hotel with two women, whom Martinez said he did not know.
"One of the women seemed, to me, like the girlfriend of Galman. They had breakfast with us. I could only speculate why the women were brought to us that day," Martinez said. "I later learned they were reported missing."
These women were sisters Anna and Catherine Oliva, who had been reported missing shortly after the Aquino assassination.
Gatan’s final order to Galman was for him to do a good job, Martinez recalled.
Then a SWAT uniform without a name tag was given to Martinez, while Ochoco gave Galman a maintenance crewman’s uniform.
After it was confirmed that Aquino was on board the China Airlines flight that would bring him to Manila, Martinez said he and Galman were immediately dispatched to the MIA.
Martinez told The STAR that this alone, not to mention the testimonies of other soldiers, disputed the claim that Galman was killed before Aquino was assassinated.
"He was only a captain the. He asked me to go to his house to bring something. His wife made me wait for hours. Of course, I was quite irritated. When I left the house, the door slammed, but it was not intentional. His wife told him about it and he scolded me," Martinez said.
Martinez added that Ochoco also planned to have him killed after the assassination.
Sgt. Cordova Estelo was also ordered to kill Martinez before. Estelo tried three times, but Martinez is still alive to tell his tale.
"What other interest can they have in my life? I have already spent 20 years in prison," he said.
"I hid the truth from them but they know. They even intended not to speak to me. I sensed that they knew because, if they would be chatting as I passed, they would fall silent. But, when I was convicted, when I decided to serve God, I could no longer take (the silence). The truth set me free," Martinez said.
Martinez said he cried when he finally told his cellmates the truth. Many of the soldiers said they also tried to tell the truth when the case was being heard over the course of the two trials.
Besides Mateo, those who saw Galman shoot Aquino were Miranda, de Guzman and Lazaga. Miranda said he was told by the lawyers not to say anything.
The soldiers said the late Custodio never allowed them to get their own lawyers and they were all represented by lawyer Rodolfo Jimenez.
The soldiers said they continued to fear for their lives, even after Corazon Aquino became president, because the masterminds who planned the Aquino assassination still roamed freely.
"If I had really been the one, I should be dead because their orders were to kill all friendly or enemy forces that would harm Ninoy," he said.
Moreover, Moreno said that, considering how hard it was to be jailed and separated from one’s family, his companions should have revealed by now that he was the gunman.
It was what the Aquino administration demanded of them. Name the gunman and all of them would go free.
"An emissary of President Cory came to see us back in 1994. The lawyer told us that we (must) just name the soldier who shot Ninoy and we would all be free. But we could not say it was Sgt. Moreno because that is not the truth," Lat said. Today is his 54th birthday.
The soldiers stuck to their story, shoosing to spend another decade in jail instead of lying their way out.
De Guzman said he shot Galman because he saw Galman shoot Aquino. "It was inside the SWAT van, like what I am told in court. But they did not believe me. I saw Sgt. de Mesa parry the arm of Galman."
If there was one thing that the soldiers regret now, it was that they allowed themselves to be manipulated by their superiors then, when they should have spoken up.
"Everything was a lie," they said.
At the very least, they said, they should have been considered for a commutation of sentence for having served the minimum sentence for the offense, which is 16 years or "basag laya" as the NBP inmates call it.
"There is no law for us. The other inmates with double life sentences here are given freedom after 16 years. All we did was kill in the line of duty. We went through a difficult 20 years," de Mesa said. "I have become an old bachelor in here. I was only 23 at the time. And I couldn’t start a family, jailed as I am. Our careers were also ruined."
In 1996 and 2002, the soldiers said they had been recommended for commutation of sentences, but nothing happened in either instance and they are confused even over their classification as prisoners.
"We were told we are political prisoners, so we have to apply for amnesty," the soldiers said. "When we considered (doing so), we were told that the government said we are common criminals, so we should just follow the procedure that is being recommended for commutation. Apparently, they just want us to rot here in Bilibid."
Desolong wondered aloud why every politician and the public is seeking a reinvestigation of the Kuratong Baleleng case.
"We were really hurt because those were criminals and they were being given a chance at justice," Desolong said. "Even all of us here want the world to know the truth, we have no one to tell it to. We were merely used by powerful people and we’re being made to rot in jail.
The soldiers renewed their appeal to the government to let justice take its course, political pressure notwithstanding.
"While the people in power continue to listen to those who want to keep us locked up, we will not be free. Nothing. The people who plotted (the Aquino assassination) are so happy because, after 20 years, it will all be gone. They will say that this person is the mastermind but he can no longer be arrested because the prescription period has lapsed. They’ll be free," a soldier added.
Every day they spend at NBP’s maximum security compound, their grip on hope slips.
"The people who did this, the people who planned this, including the mastermind, are just there. They live well. They pursue pleasure. We are the ones made to sacrifice for their sins," a soldier said.
De Guzman, 51, said they have only one heart’s desire: "We also want to be with our families." He has seven children, six of whom were conceived within the confines of the NBP.
"We hope for freedom so our families can experience having a father, despite our being prisoners, that they can feel the caring of a father. We would like to spend the remainder of our lives on this earth sharing our love with our families."